Corporate hijinx

Today is April Fools day. It’s not only a great day to prank your friends, but it is also a great opportunity for corporations to be a little mischievous as well.

Google has a long history of pranking. Their first hoax was called “The MentalPlex hoax.” This prank consisted of inviting users to project an image while staring at an animated gif. A number of humorous messages were then shown on the search results page. Some of the messages included:

Error CKR8: That information is protected under the National Security Act.

Error: MentalPlex(tm) has determined that this is not your final answer. Please try again.

Another funny prank that Google pulled off was that they added weather control to their weather search. If only that really worked; this winter could have been a lot more bearable.

This year Google teamed up with The Pokémon Company to launch an interesting app that can be used on the iPhone and Android devices, allowing users to capture Pokémon, while at the same time having the ability to explore the real world with Google Maps.

Google has also utilized the day before April Fools Day to announce actual products. The thinking goes that consumers will be unsure whether the revolutionary product is real or not because of its release date, and, either way, is a great way to get their message out virally. For example, On March 31, 2004 Google announced the launch of its new product, Gmail. Many individuals thought it was a hoax because it had free web-based email, as well as 1 Gigabyte of storage – features that were unheard of at the time.

It will be interesting to see what types of pranks companies do today. Keep me posted on what you hear.

Rachael Doukas is the founder/owner of Doukas Media. Follow her on Twitter @RachaelDoukas.